Yes, if Northam has his way on legislation.
I’m thrilled to see working people across America benefiting from the federal government’s “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.†Wages and business incomes are up, retirement plans and investments are improving, and companies are bringing money back to invest in America.
Unemployment is near historic lows, with particularly great milestones for minorities and others who have been left behind in previous periods of growth. An unintended effect this has on Virginians is not so good. Without action by the Virginia legislature, Virginia’s middle-class families will face a $500 million dollar tax hike for 2018 and future tax years, thus missing the full benefit of the federal relief. Virginia lawmakers should take a thoughtful and broad-based approach to tax reform so as many Virginians as possible experience tax relief.
One key aspect of the federal tax reform was the increase in the standard deduction from $12,700 for a married couple filing jointly to $24,000. This means some families, who chose to itemize last year, will pay less federal taxes by claiming the standard deduction this year. Unfortunately, Virginia law hasn’t yet been adjusted in response to this, so under current state law, that family now must also claim the standard deduction on the state level of only $6,000.
Virginia has not passed significant tax reform in recent years, even though many worthwhile ideas have been brought forward by policy researchers and former candidates for governor Ken Cuccinelli and Ed Gillespie. I will push for Virginia to pass pro-growth changes to our tax code that will make Virginia more competitive with our neighboring states and the rest of the nation and allow Virginia’s hardworking families and businesses to keep more of their hard-earned money.
Our economy here in Virginia is recovering, but growth has been lagging behind other states. Virginia citizens are much better than the government at deciding how to save, spend, and invest to grow our economy.
Instead of focusing on this critical issue of tax reform, the governor just announced two proposals, both politically motivated.
First, Gov. Northam wants to take the additional revenue from middle-class working families and small businesses and redistribute it to people who don’t pay taxes, a move that certainly fits the trend of Democrat politicians toward a more socialist style of governance.
Northam’s political maneuver No. 2 is his recently announced decision to waste the Commonwealth’s and the legislature’s time and resources by convening a special session of the legislature next week to re-draw 11 House of Delegates districts for the November 2019 election. This, despite the fact that the court case involving these districts is under appeal, and new districts would only be in effect for one election, since the normal decennial statewide redistricting would take place prior to the 2021 elections.
My hope is that Gov. Northam and the General Assembly will come together to pass meaningful reforms, avoid the new tax, and help Virginia’s families, small-business owners and economy.
Dave LaRock, R-Hamilton, represents the 33rd District in the Virginia House of Delegates.
Also published in the Winchester Star
34 comments
This story has left out what some news is telling today;
80% of Contractors are having difficulty finding “Skilled Labor”.
Isn’t the Honorable Delegate a Contractor?
Today’s Contractors are mere men with a Construction loan or the winner’s of low bid contracts who have no bussiness in the business if they themselves are so “unskilled” in the profession as to hie someone to train their labor or do it themselves.
Who actually is the real American that does not want to work?
Labor themselves?,
Or the “unskilled corporatist”
My 35 years experience in the Va. Residential Construction Industry says the latter, the white collar amature golfer/contractors.
Hiring and training employees is a large part of running a business NO ONE should be allowed to circumnavigate legal employers by crying for “unskilled , undocumented migrant farm labor or a guest worker program”.
Use the existing HB labor programs properly, enough of the “free flow of gang labor” into Virginia.
And now news that Trump is eliminating planned pay raises for fed
I got a tax cut and so did my kids and my friends. None of us are rich.
Honorable Delegate,
Due to the ineptitude of the Va. Republicans in our General Assembly in combatting payroll fraud and the “Santurary Employment” that it fosters none of these elected politicians should be allowed to advance to a higher political position.
The President should use the IRS and ICE to shut down what you are complicit of on this issue.
BUILD THE WALL,
around the Republican General Assembly, then flood it!
Hurricanes cleanse the slime in low lying areas and swamps. Looks like we need one to strike Richmond.
***Corey Stewart for Senate***
It is funny to see this story about what big brother has done to increase wages yet the Va Republicans lack the testicular fortitude to assist President Trump on fighting “Santurary Employment”.
The Junior Varsity , no B-Team Virginia Republicans can’t even seem to bear tackling payroll fraud when such claims of economic prosperity BY OTHERS come from their lips.
It would be wise to withhold ALL Campaign contributions to Virginia Delegates and Senators and invest in silver.
You would have a much better return.
Va Republican Legislators “no habla”
Payroll Fraud, Employee Misclassification, Unlicensed Contracting and the ***Santurary Employment that these issues in Virginia foster.
C’mon “Honorable Delegate” don’t just blame one side.
Are Glen Davis, Kirk Cox, and Jill Vogel going to go along with Northam on this one too?
Little one, don’t you have anything better to do? Or are you paid for this junk? Sad.
??
“First, Gov. Northam wants to take the additional revenue…â€
What “additional revenue� If there has been no change to VA’s tax code there is no “additional†anything.
Also, none of you CONservatives have said boo about your president’s tariffs which are nothing but new taxes on working Americans. Of course, CONservatives don’t give a lick about working (or any) Americans!
Finally, no one is surprised that CONservatives don’t want to redraw racially gerrymandered districts. We get it!!
That may be some of the Revenue that the Commonwealth is ***now*** obtaining due to Governor Northams policies on Employee Misclassification and Unlicensed Contracting.
You know where McDonnell and Cuccinelli allowed holes.
Holes just don’t exist at the Border.
You are either devoid of the ability to research and understand how the current Virginia laws are disjointed from the new Federal tax laws or have never filed a Virginia return. I am betting it’s probably a combination of the two.
Here’s a few areas in which Virginians are impacted by the new Federal laws and areas which state revenues WILL increase:
* Personal exemptions
* Mortgage Interest Deductions
* Moving expenses
* Property Tax Deductions
* Net Operating Losses
* Dividends that receive deductions
* Manufacturing deductions under Section 199
There are more but I am not going to do your homework for you.
I find it amazing you come to a conservative site and insult the contributors and readers with your half assed comments which are nothing more than parroted sound bytes with no research on your part. And when in doubt, you double down on the touchy-feely screed capitalization with zero backup. Shift goal posts much?
If it were up to me, Sparky – I’d vote you off this island.
Eric is just a self-defined troll, there is no rationality for him.
As opposed to you who are the real thing my dear Rocinante?
Moi? A Troll? I’m hurt that you think such a thing. I would accept ‘control-alt-delete-right-GOP Socratic gadfly.’
“In Internet slang, a troll (/troÊŠl, trÉ’l/) is a person who starts quarrels or upsets people on the Internet to distract and sow discord by posting inflammatory and digressive, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a newsgroup, forum, chat room, or blog) with the intent of provoking readers into displaying emotional responses and normalizing tangential discussion, whether for the troll’s amusement or a specific gain.â€
Socrates: “5 answers · Philosophy
Best Answer
He meant he was stinging people out of their complacency. Just as a gadfly, by constantly stinging a horse agitates it, preventing it from becoming sluggish and going to sleep, so did Socrates, by stirring things up, prevent the City from becoming sluggish and careless and intolerant.â€
Troll/control/alt/delete/right/GOP/Socratic Gadfly. Potato Potatoe. My dear Rocinante, have you been reading Word of the Day Toilet Paper again?
I’m hard to pin down, but if you look to your right, I’m there.
My dear Rocinante. 1st off, while I usually refuse to be the Grammar Police, this one time – it’s YOUR – not YOU’RE. 2ndly and more importantly. No one in the Shenandoah Valley is farther to the right than moi.
Wow! Are you guys actually having a “no I’m further right!!†throw down??!! I love this place!! So much entertainment for free!!
Neither of us could ever get close enough to your left-ness.
Cue political spectrum topic.
Any truth to the rumor that we will soon be seeing Stewart/Comstock signs in the 10th thanks to some fat cat in Frederick county? Surely that’s not true.
There is only one reason to vote for Babs over all the reasons to not to — the R next to her name. Nothing, I mean nothing, “trumps†that!
Besides, Hell hath no fury like a swamp rat backstabbed — don’t ya want to see her going all Carrie on her ‘pals’ in DC?
Oh I fixed it within 10 seconds, you must be hanging on my every note!
And more importantly, I am not in Shenandoah!
This must be why we’re the guys at every party party wrestling to get closest to the wall.
Actually I don’t hang on your every note or word. It’s more that I really need a life. But it could be worse my dear Rocinante – we could be like Eric the 1/2 Troll. While we may be on different sides of our own party from time to time, at least we don’t think like that fool. And at least we think.
Since, tragically enough, TBE is the highlight of my day, my computers and devices have a spasm every time a post is made.
I love having further right contests within the GOP as that’s the only way things are going to get fixed within the party.
While I consider you one of the wiser elders and grownups in the party, some of your recent positions skew away from conservative resulting in me being the only one who is always right (in all senses of the word.)
Eric is an agitator who retains use as a foil and a tragic example of a fuzzy-thinking leftist.
Once you return to the fold of conservative and liberty, I will recruit you into my reactionary cabal.
Dude, if TBE really is the highlight of your day, we really need to get you out of the house more. Actually other than on local transportation, all of my positions are to the far right – and even then – my position on local transportation is that it should remain locally regulated and not regulated by Richmond (something that Uber and Lyft wanted and got) aka my positions on local transportation are conservative. Now if you are offended by the fact that I voted for and continue to support the allocation of $30,000 to pay for lawyers to defend both the Committee and the previous treasurers, then that is your problem and your concern. However since you live in CD 10 and are really not 100% aware of what is occurring here and what did occur during the convention process – it is difficult if not impossible for me to explain to you what occurred.
As I am the Vice Chair of the 6th District Committee now, I must be very careful of what I say here so as to not look as though I am denigrating the Committee or its members.
Dude! Don’t judge me in how I get my kicks!
Ps: I’m not offended by anything here. On the contrary, I rather enjoy it. Aloha, Mr. Hand!
I stand corrected on my first point, Danielle. I suppose the fact that my (and much of the country’s) state taxes will be increased as a consequence of the Trump tax cut is just another price we will all have to pay to fund those stock buyback windfalls for corporate executives. Alas…
And again, do your own homework. Most states legislation mirror the Federal code and incorporate large sections of it. They do this not only for a compliance basis but to also to reduce the burden of state taxation.
Virginia has ALWAYS conformed to IRS codes, even if was in session to keep up with previous year’s tax code changes. Wreck It Ralph conformed to the IRS code as in place in February, 2018 with the exception of the Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017. With this failure, the tax burden on not only the individual taxpayer but also businesses will be unnecessarily higher, reducing the available capital to increase the economic base.
This WILL make Virginia less tax friendly to everything from those “eeeviiiilll” corporations to individual taxpayers to the Mom & Pop shops that run our economic engine and fails ALL Virginians. People and businesses flee states with high tax burdens – just like they are leaving in droves from New York and California.
Pretty quickly, you will be able to tell your local dry cleaner or tofu shop, whose owners are choking under unnecessary taxation and can’t afford to buy equipment for their businesses, or the struggling family that could use the personal exemption delta, that conservatives hate them – except it would be a lie.
I almost feel sorry for you, Sparky – except you parroting talking points with no substance is going to impact my children’s future.
One must wonder if the 1/2 troll actually believes the drivel he serves up on here
The truth will set you free, JM!! Come into the light!
Bless his heart, he has no idea what he’s talking about.
It’s one of the hallmarks if TBE commenters
Gee, if only the people who shoved through these tax cuts for the rich had told us at the time that all states had to adjust their tax code or there would be an automatic tax increase on working Americans. Why do you think they left that tidbit out, hmm? That $2.5 Trillion “investment†in the federal deficit is looking better everyday. Anyhoo, looks like Northam plans to adjust the VA tax code after all. Maybe not exactly how the R’s want it to go down, but I’m good with that.